Greening Roundtable

Put your Jewish institution on the road to environmental sustainability!

The Greening Roundtable is a committee of the Westchester Jewish Council. Four meetings held each year share valuable resources and “how to” information to guide synagogues, day schools and other Jewish institutions towards a more environmentally sustainable future. To join, contact Pam Goldstein.

The Roundtable’s Greening Checklist provides a framework for facility improvements and environmentally sound policies and practices that every institution can work to adopt over time. Click HERE to download a copy.

PAST PROGRAMS:

• The Greening Roundtable hosted a meeting on May 7, 2025 with guest speaker Dr. Shahar Sadeh, Adamah NY’s Founding Director.  Here are some resources: 

  Adamah NY is a community impact hub of Adamah, the largest the largest Jewish Environmental Organization in North America, that mobilizes and cultivates vibrant Jewish life in deep connection with the earth.

   Adamah works with youth, holds community events and supports Jewish institutions in better managing their facilities. All Jewish organizations are welcome to join Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition – a network of over 415 Jewish community organizations who are supported by Adamah.

  Joining the Coalition is easy, free, and gives you access to one-on-one consultation and coaching, webinars and workshops, and future funding to drive implementation. The Coalition gives out zero interest loans (up to 100K) and smaller grants (up to 10K) for synagogues and dayschools through the Climate Action Fund     

   The Coalition provides structure, guidance, resources, and financial support to help organizations create and implement a Climate Action Plan. The plan is an online document outlining the strategic priorities of your organization’s climate and energy related work by detailing specific actions taken to date and setting goals for the following year (these can be related to your building, your lighting, your vehicles, your boilers, your community engagement on environmental education and more). The plan is submitted once a year around Tu B’Shvat.  

   If you are interested in learning more, please be in touch with Shahar at shahar.sadeh@adamah.org

• The Council’s Greening Roundtable convened on May 2, 2024 with guest speaker Nicole V. Laible, MPAP.  She is the Principal Environmental Planner//District Manager for Westchester County Department of Planning//Westchester County Soil & Water Conservation District.  Please click SWCD_WQ Presentation_Plan A Advisors_May 2024_Final for a copy of the presentation.

• The Council’s third Greening Roundtable, which was held on March 19th, 2024, was led by Emily Whitacre from Trex who shared her recyclable knowledge.  You can view the program here. Resources from this program can be found below in the “Resources” section

• The Council’s Greening Roundtable convened in February 2024 and presented “NEW POWER FOR JEWISH NONPROFITS: INSTALLING ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS” which introduced us to Con Ed’s Electric Vehicle Charging Station Program and its many benefits. We were joined by Kerron Celestine from Con Edison.

You can watch the program by clicking here.

Here are some resources that were shared during the meeting:

Con Edison PowerReady EV Program 685 First Avenue Press Release 5-3-2021 (1)

case-study-balfour-court

WJC Greening Roundtable Meeting Con Edison

Electric Vehicle Charging Revel Superhub Opens in Brooklyn Press Release 6-29-2021 (2)

EV PowerReady Case Study – Hilltop Village_Press

• Join The Native Plant Center email list to learn more about choosing non-invasive and sustainable plant materials for your garden; and to stay up to date on plant sales, educational programs, and volunteer opportunities. Send an email to wcc.nativeplant@sunywcc.edu with the subject line: Add Me to Email List. Click HERE for a list of resources on native plants and the Center.

• Interfaith Power & Light invites you to join us to ensure a safe climate for our neighbors and communities during Faith Climate Action Week, April 14 – 23, 2023. Save the date! The kits will be available in January.

Faith Climate Action Week is IPL’s annual program of climate-themed worship services and sermons that spans ten days of activities in celebration of Earth Month. This is IPL’s premier event to create a mass movement of people of faith and conscience preaching, teaching, and acting to heal the climate.

2023’s Faith Climate Action Week theme is “Living the Golden Rule: Just Transition to a clean energy economy.” We’ll examine our responsibility to transition to energy sources that safeguard our common home and how our faiths call us to respond with just solutions for all.

Sign up to be notified when the pre-printed Organizer’s Kit becomes available.

The kit will include an Action Guide with information on the faithful call to care for our neighbors by ensuring a just transition to a clean energy economy where the well-being of workers and frontline community members are prioritized.

In the kit, there are suggested short films, an updated climate change fact sheet, faith-based discussion materials, including a special multi-faith Golden Rule poster, and suggestions and resources for how to engage in supporting local action.

Reserve your pre-printed Faith Climate Action Week Organizer’s kit here.

Faith Climate Action Week 2023 online offerings include resources for sermons, talks, worship services, a film screening kit for the 2023 featured film, and more.

NEW GREENING ROUNDTABLE RESOURCES AS OF MARCH 2024

Our third Greening Roundtable, which was held on March 19th, 2024 was led by Emily Whitacre from Trex who shared her recyclable knowledge. TURNING DETRITUS INTO DECKS introduced us to the Trex Company which recycles reclaimed plastic film and scrap wood.  You can view Emily’s presentation here – TREX Westchester Jewish Council Greening Committee.

Join The Native Plant Center email list to learn more about choosing non-invasive and sustainable plant materials for your garden; and to stay up to date on plant sales, educational programs, and volunteer opportunities. Send an email to wcc.nativeplant@sunywcc.edu with the subject line: Add Me to Email List. Click here for a list of resources on native plants and the Center.

Sustainable Westchester is a nonprofit, consortium of Westchester County local governments that facilitates effective collaboration on sustainability initiatives. Our goal is to bring socially responsible, environmentally sound, and economically viable solutions that create healthy, resilient, sustainable communities.

GridRewards is Sustainable Westchester’s a demand response program. It helps to alleviate stress on the energy grid during a handful of times in the summer when the energy grid is at peak demand (and most polluting). Houses of Worship can sign up their buildings or campuses to participate and earn cash by reducing energy at key times. GridRewards will notify you when these events occur. The more participation, the more money that can be earned.  Here is a quick explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLSd2uMkVc0 For more information, please reach out to Lauren@SustainableWestchester.org

CompostED is a Westchester facility, located on the Grasslands Campus in Valhalla, the County’s small-scale food scrap composting demonstration and education site. The facility composts up to two tons of food scraps a week and also serves as a valuable educational opportunity for County residents, students, and municipal officials. Interactive tours are available for school groups where students will be able to take and record compost temperatures, mix compost ingredients, hand screen and flip compost piles. If your school or class is interested in participating in a compost tour, or more information about the CompostED program, please send an email to CompostEd@Westchestergov.com.

The Yorktown Garden of Hope is a community-driven organic garden providing fresh vegetables to regional Northern Westchester County, NY food banks, as well as organic gardening training. The garden, located in Willow Park, at the corner of Curry Street and Tulip Drive, may be used as a teaching site for synagogue and religious school groups. Garden of Hope Facebook Page (link is external)

Dayenu is a movement of American Jews confronting the climate crisis with spiritual audacity and bold political action. You can join or start a Dayenu Circle which is a group of 5-10 people who meet at least once monthly to engage in Dayenu-led climate campaigns and efforts, and to grapple with the deep spiritual and existential questions raised by the climate crisis. Dayenu provides the training, support, and resources. If you or your synagogue is interested in starting a Dayenu Circle, you can drop them an email or check out our Dayenu Circle resources here.

Jewish Earth Alliance is a grassroots network of communities working together to enable Jews to engage in the policy process at the Federal level as citizens. The Alliance provides action alerts for individuals and congregations to advocate around environmental issues with Members of Congress. There’s a monthly briefing and a monthly action you can take when you sign up.

Join Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition to create and implement a climate action plan and get access to one-on-one consulting, resource sharing and financial support in the form of interest-free loans and matching grants through Adamah’s Climate Action Fund.

To view recordings of past roundtables via our YouTube channel, click HERE.